Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is very nice to have my mam and my sister right behind me as I speak on this really important issue today. I thank the Minister for his time. Since I came into this House, we have spoken about this issue quite a lot. We are waiting for the moment when we will come in here and say that we have got somewhere but every single week and every single day we see something in the news that brings us back down and back to a point at which women are in a place of serious vulnerability. I welcome what the Minister said about zero tolerance of violence against womenHowever, the fact is we have tolerated such violence for a long time. We are tolerating it by delays in action. We are tolerating it in the fact there are healthcare workers afraid to go to work. We are tolerating it by way of not having a transport police force, leaving women, and people in general, afraid to go on the train or the Luas. We are tolerating it by not looking after women in the Defence Forces. We are tolerating it by not providing tougher sentences for perpetrators. We are tolerating it by not legislating more quickly to deal with stalking, public harassment and strangulation.

We are talking today about setting up an agency to deal with this issue but, in fact, we tolerate violence against women by not having done that already. We are not educating and empowering our children. We have not strengthened our bail laws. We are not empowering young women by offering them a safe place in which to report crimes. Senator Ward spoke about a case in which someone went to the Garda and nothing was done. That is tolerating violence against women and it is happening on our watch. We are tolerating a system women cannot trust. We are tolerating violence by not creating a register of offenders. I acknowledge the importance of the work the Minister is doing and his commitment to it. However, if we are not looking after victims through their journey, if we are not taking measures to prevent crimes and if perpetrators are not afraid of getting caught and going to jail, I am afraid we will continue to see acts of violence against women.

This is not a new problem, situation or pandemic. Women have been violated for thousands of years. Going back to the story of Adam and Eve, it is Eve who is the evil one who corrupts poor Adam and has to be put down. Sexism comes from way back then. It is cultural and societal. It is in our policy and in our system. Sexual and gender-based violence is a different sort of crime. It goes to the very dignity and essence of a human to be violated in any sexual way. Our courts system and our system of policymaking need to consider that. When people ask for help, whether from the Garda or the courts system, they need to be cared for and minded and they need to be able to trust the system. That is my request today. We want to be zero-tolerant but, in fact, we do tolerate crime against women.